[SOLVED] Crackling sound while gaming caused my GPU to die ?

[Bigem_neo]

Hey everyone,

Had a very weird issue with my RTX 3080 Ti Aorus Master. I bought the card three weeks ago and it worked as expected (yet very noisy when gaming). Two weeks later, I started having an annoying crackling sound in my headphones (Logitech Pro X Wireless), which led me to believe that they may be faulty.

During the next gaming session, the crackling sound happened again, and then... my two monitors went black, with no sound and no image. The PC was still on, fans were spinning, even the graphics card LEDs and LCD screen were on. But I then noticed that the VGA LED on the motherboard was solid white. I returned the card to the retailer t was bought from. They tried the card on different PCS with different PSUs, and it would not post anymore. They gave me a 3060 as replacement card (while I RMA'ed the other one), and it worked fine for 5 days (tuned down the resolution to 1080p) until the crackling sound happened again...

I decided not to push things furthermore and turned off the PC until I figure out all of this. Could this come from a faulty PSU? Faulty mobo? Thanks for your help.

My original specs:

• CPU : i9-10900K
• MOBO : Asus ROG Z490 E-Gaming
• GPU : Aorus Master RTX 3080 Ti
• PSU : Cooler Master V850W 80+ Gold V2
• COOLING : MSI Coreliquid 360R
• RAM : 32Gb Corsair Vengeance (2x16) 3000Mhz CL15
• CASE : Lian Li O11D XL with 10 fans (bottom and side as intake, radiator and rear as exhaust)

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Maybe issues with your power supply

 

[Satan-IR]

Have you ispected the whole motherboard and case PCIE slot? Maybe something is there and shorting?

I would bread-board the system out of the case. With motherboard on a noncondictive surface and see if it happens again. To eliminate the possibility of something shorting inside the case.

Your GPU failed and now the replacement is starting to show same symptoms. Sounds like PSU might have done it too, yes.

The 3060 worked fine and after a few days "the crackling sound happened again". Can you check the system with another known good working PSU?

 

[Nuwan Fernando]

Do you use a UPS?
How is your house wiring?
Do you use a power extension cable for the PC?
Do you get any burnt smell near plug points, PSU, cables etc.?
Cause this kind of a thing can only happen due to the problem in one of those or the PSU.
Check the Power cable to the PSU as well.

 

[Bigem_neo]

Have you ispected the whole motherboard and case PCIE slot? Maybe something is there and shorting?

I would bread-board the system out of the case. With motherboard on a noncondictive surface and see if it happens again. To eliminate the possibility of something shorting inside the case.

Your GPU failed and now the replacement is starting to show same symptoms. Sounds like PSU might have done it too, yes.

The 3060 worked fine and after a few days "the crackling sound happened again". Can you check the system with another known good working PSU?

Going to get another PSU to test that out

 

[Bigem_neo]

Do you use a UPS?
How is your house wiring?
Do you use a power extension cable for the PC?
Do you get any burnt smell near plug points, PSU, cables etc.?
Cause this kind of a thing can only happen due to the problem in one of those or the PSU.
Check the Power cable to the PSU as well.

I was using power extension cables but then removed them for the 3060, which didn't prevent the problem from happening. At this point I think it's either the PSU or the mobo

 

[Bigem_neo]

Do you use a UPS?
How is your house wiring?
Do you use a power extension cable for the PC?
Do you get any burnt smell near plug points, PSU, cables etc.?
Cause this kind of a thing can only happen due to the problem in one of those or the PSU.
Check the Power cable to the PSU as well.

I've also never had any burnt smell